Thank you to John Stirling for allowing me to reproduce this
photo. It is one of a of a collection made from glass
plates that John rescued from being destroyed in 1974. The
photographer is not known.

John wrote:

"The location of this photo could be
Nicolson Street."

John Stirling, Currie, Edinburgh:
Oct 23, 2009

Answer

2.

Peter Stubbs

Edinburgh

St Patrick Square

John Stirling was just about correct in identifying this
location. In fact this photograph is of the east
side of St Patrick Square. That's the short stretch of
road between Nicolson Street and Clerk Street, immediately
to the south of Nicolson Street

he Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directory for 1930-31 gives
the following addresses:

- 1 St Patrick Square: John Wright, Draper.

- 2 St Patrick Square: James F Dewar.

- 3 St Patrick Square: Thomas B Doig.

Also, the shop on the right hand side of this photo appears
to be at:

- 10 St Patrick Square.

The 1930-31 directory is the earliest directory that I have,
but the photo was probably taken some time earlier, so by
consulting directories for earlier years it may be possible to
identify more of the shops, and to estimate the date of this
photo.

Zoom-in

Please click on the
thumbnail images below to zoom-in to the sops on the left and
right of the photograph at the top of this page.

"I remember the east side of St
Patrick Square well from the 1950s and 1960s.

At that time, there was a sizeable
furniture shop on that stretch, covering around three of the
shops in the photo. The wide split-level pavement was still
there, and just out of shot to the left was a dry cleaning shop
which opened offering some sort of new-fangled American dry
cleaning process.

The photo is taken from the North
entrance to the West side of the square. Itís not clear whether
there are any tram lines or not. If not, it suggests the photo
predates horse-drawn and cable cars. It looks a lot older than
electric trams which didnít start until the early 1920s.

I seem to remember these buildings
being refurbished in the late 1960s."

Bryan Gourlay, Biggar, Lanarkshire,
Scotland: October 26, 2009

Answer

4.

Peter Stubbs

Edinburgh

I've now had chance to do some further research into the date
of this photo, by referring to old editions of the Edinburgh &
Leith Post Office Directory.

1907 to
1918

These directories show the following shops to have been at St
Patrick Square throughout the period 1905 to 1930. They
may well have been at these addresses for considerably longer.

- 1 St Patrick Square: John Wright, Draper.

- 2 St Patrick Square: James F Dewar.

- 3 St Patrick Square: Thomas B Doig.

However it is this shop, at the right-hand side of the photo,
that helps to narrow down the date of this photo.

- 10 St Patrick Square: J Morrison

It was only listed in the directories as being at this
address for the years 1907 to 1918, so the photograph must have
been taken some time during this period.

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: October 24, 2009

Answer

5.

Peter Stubbs

Edinburgh

Changes over the last Century

Here we can compare the photo taken in the early-1900s (1907
to 1918) with a photo that I took of the same section of street
today. The transport and shops have changed, but the
buildings are still very recognisable.

"I have just been
looking at the St Patrick square pictures. They show quite
clearly some of the internal changes that have been made to the
building.

Nearly all of the waste
pipes from kitchen sinks, seen on the old photo, have now
disappeared. Only the rainwater pipes from the rhones
remain.

If you look at the
number of sink wastes on the old photo, it will give you
an idea of how many apartments were front-facing. This
would have been mirrored to the rear of the building.

The largest of these
would be
2-apartment flats and some of them would be single-ends with a
box bedroom.

In the 1950s and 1960s,
the flats in this building would have been reconfigured to give
at least one bedroom and in some cases two. At least,
that's my experience, having worked as a joiner on many
conversions like this in the town."

Bob Henderson, Burdiehouse, Edinburgh:
October 27 + 28. 2009

Answer

7.

John Stirling

Currie, Edinburgh

Thank you to John Stirling, who has been studying the history
of sanitary conditions in some of Edinburgh's housing, for
commenting on this topic.